Riders and runners leave the starting line at the Ride & Tie World Championship. | Photo by Corey Rich

Fort Bragg, Calif., July 28, 2004 -- Defending world champion team Jim Howard and Dennis Rinde riding Magic Sirocco, completed the rugged 35 mile course in a winning time of 4:01:20 at the 34th annual Ride & Tie World Championship June 30. The sport combines running and equine endurance.

Howard now holds an unparalleled record seven Ride & Tie world titles. Howard's first title was garnered in 1981: his record at the top of the sport spans 24 years. A winning combination, Howard and Rinde have partnered for the World Championship Ride & Tie numerous times and have been crowned world champions in three of those attempts. With the top team holding previous world titles, the $1,000 novice-win prize money, dubbed Pat's Purse, again went unclaimed.

In second place overall was woman/woman team of Laurie Wilson and Brandi Page riding Nightcap. The team earned the highest highest woman/woman team placement in the 34 years of the Ride & Tie World Championship. This team completed the course in 4:24:39. The two leased their horse, Nightcap, from race director Lari Shea, for the event.

Veteran endurance competitors Jim Brown and Russ Kiernan, in third place overall, also won their age category. Age categories are defined by the combined runners' ages. With a combined age of 120+ years, Brown and Kiernan won the Century in the Saddle +20 category. The team rode Yaquar Adonai, owned by Cindy Brown, to win the Best Condition prize, awarded by the panel of veterinarians to the horse finishing the race in the fittest physical condition.

In fourth place overall, now repeat world champions in the man/woman category, were Sid Sullivan and Mary Tiscornia riding Albi. This trio first captured the world title when they previously teamed together in 2001. Tiscornia is the only athlete to have competed in every Ride & Tie World Championship since the sport's inception in 1971.

By special invitation, international teams represented their countries at the 2004 Ride & Tie World Championship. Although the sport is little seen outside the U.S., teams from Australia and Germany accepted the challenge and flew in to try their hand at the sport. Both teams completed the course with Australia in 24th and Germany in 30th.

Race director Lari Shea hosted this year's Ride & Tie World Championship at the private ranch, Simcha, just north of Fort Bragg, Calif., on the Mendocino Coast. It was the first year at this site with the course running up and down rugged coastal terrain and through redwood forests. The 2005 World Championship will be held at an as yet undisclosed location.

The sport of Ride & Tie combines trail running, endurance riding and strategy. The goal is to get all three team members, two humans and one horse, across a 20- to 100-mile cross-country course by alternating riding and running. Everyone starts out together. The rider, being faster, rides ahead and ties the horse to a tree, and then continues down the trail on foot. The team member who started out on foot gets to the horse, unties, mounts up and rides past the runner and ties the horse--and this leapfrog continues the entire course. When, where and how a team exchanges riding for running is almost entirely up to each team.

For more information on the sport of Ride & Tie and advice on how you can get started in the sport, visit www.rideandtie.org or call the Ride & Tie Association at (650) 949-2321.

Australian Boyd Exell sets a world driving record in the second day of combined driving dressage. Chester Weber and Ijsbrand Chardon are tied for second place. In the jumping, McLain Ward jumps two clear rounds to tie for first place in this evening's class.

March 10, 2011 - Wellington, FL - Despite the weather's best attempts to delay the start of the 2011 World Dressage Masters presented by the International Polo Club Palm Beach, the competition prevailed and at 2 PM the only World Dressage Masters in the United States got underway at 2 PM at the Jim Brandon Equestrian Center after some fierce storms passed over Florida.

April 26, 2004 -- Virginia Intermont College nabbed the ANRC National Intercollegiate Riding Championship team title by 0.78 of a point over St. Andrews Presbyterian College. Sweet Briar College junior Karen Dennehy was the individual champion.